What tonight’s episode finally did — other than free up Jack Gleeson to attend divinity school full time — was burn away the last illusions of Westerosi nobility. Everything about Joffrey’s reign was diseased and illegitimate. Even he was illegitimate: The product of Lannister twincest, he had as much claim to the Baratheon name as Hot Pie. Even so, he served a purpose. He wasn’t a figurehead so much as he was a cork — something jammed into a hole in the world to keep chaos from spilling out. Last season, Littlefinger bragged about how, for some, chaos is a ladder. But for most people, certainly the ones who are going to die and die horribly as the war for the Iron Throne resumes in earnest, chaos is simply chaos. I’m not sure on the rules of Westerosi succession, but I can’t imagine Joffrey’s murder is going to contribute to the continent’s general air of peace and stability. Chaos makes for good television but a lousy life.

This is especially true when you see it up close. Though “The Lion and the Rose” will be remembered for Joffrey’s drinking problem, it ought to be reexamined for what it suggested about the type of world left in his wake. Joffrey was a son of a bitch, to be sure, but better the devil you know than the bastard waiting just around the bend. Ramsay Snow represents a barbarity that makes Joffrey’s brattiness seem almost adorable. The episode began with the sight of him hunting a young woman for sport, and it lingered on the aftereffects of his vicious flaytime with Theon last season. The Season 4 advertising for Thrones brags about how all men must die, but what House Bolton does to people is far worse. As awful as it was to see the once proud Theon shaking and twitching — though holding the razor steady when it mattered most — it was also fascinating, particularly the way Roose Bolton regarded him: as once valuable bait transformed into curious chum.

As I watched the Boltons smirk in their castle and Melisandre barbecue on the beach, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was evidence of a particularly bloody corner that George R.R. Martin may have painted himself into. If you build a nasty world on the twin pillars of stomach-turning savagery and ambiguous moral conflict — a world in which Jaime and Cersei Lannister can evolve from devils who casually toss a kid from a 10-story tower into people potentially deserving of sympathy — then, at a certain point, you’re going to have to keep lowering the floor. If Joffrey isn’t the worst this world has to offer, what is? Even Ramsay Snow must be scared of something. How gnarly are the chickens who have yet to come home to roost? (And how many of them will the Hound eat when they arrive?) I feel like a pretty savvyThrones watcher, but I was caught completely off guard by how Joffrey’s death made me feel. I was expecting relief. But what I experienced instead was dread. How low can this show possibly go?

It wasn't planned ahead for Tyrion to handle Joffrey's cup. I think it was definitely Margaery, no wonder she was always so sweet and accommodating with Joffrey, she knew she would be knocking him off shortly after the wedding. If not her, it has to be someone close to her, she is the one who has gained tremendously from his death. I've never wanted a character to go away so bad!

I think we're going to miss Joffrey as the devil we know -- I have this dread that what comes next is even worse!

Margaery really wanted to be Queen, so it makes no sense for her to kill him, because now she won't be Queen. I think his younger brother Tommen gets to be king now. You know that's going to be unstable.

Oberyn and Olenna make more sense.

Oberyn wants revenge for pre-Game of Thrones acts by the Lannisters.

And Olenna didn't want her granddaughter marrying Joffrey.

There's an outside chance Loras did it as revenge for Renly.

Or Tywin could have done it to get rid of both Joffrey and Tyrion, though that's unlikely since now he has an unstable power structure, too.

Sansa has motive but she's too much of a basket case to pull that off.

And you know that Varys and Littlefinger scene about chaos being a ladder? They're suspects too.

I'm re-watching it this am, and keeping an eye on that cup! but they may not show who did it. The cup was totally empty when Joffrey dropped it, and made Tyrion pick it up, so it's some point after that ;)

On my recording, in the middle of the midget 5 kings doing battle, Joffrey is besides himself with laughter, at 45 minutes he picks up his cup and drinks, at 46 minutes he spews out of his mouth, presumably wine, also I caught the names of each of the midget kings this time, and I believe it was Renly that had the large exposed rear end, then you watch Margaery's expression, and she comes across as almost as shell shocked as Sansa. The remainder of that wine get's poured over Tyrion's head at 47 minutes, 48 minutes Joffrey drops the cup, 49 Sansa hands the cup to Tyrion (it doesn't look like she does anything to the cup, but this was an unforeseen opportunity), Tyrion fills the cup from a pitcher right in front of Cersei (could she be the poisoner?, maybe Joffrey has gotten out of her control, and it stops Margaery from gaining power ;) 50 minutes "Look the pie!" (tension breaks), Joffrey drinks, and hands the cup to Margaery, she sets it on the table, pie gets cut open, Joffrey gets back to badgering Tyrion, at 51 Tyrion hands the cup to Joffrey whom swigs, says mmm good, has another swig, and the coughing begins. At 52 the guy that Sansa helped spare?, comes to her and says "Come with me milady", maybe it was him, he has reason to hate Joffrey, and to want to do right by Sansa, he repeats himself "come on milady, we have to leave". At 53 minutes Joffrey is dead in his parents arms.

I think Cersei, the man whom came to Sansa, or someone connected to Margaery?